The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 162 Don’t you think there’s something wrong?

Institute of High Energy Physics.

"Xiao Guo, can you take a look at this data and see if you can process it and then see the simulation results?"

In the computer room, the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Academician Tang Yifang, took out some data and handed it to Guo Ding in front of him.

"Okay, let me take a look..."

Guo Ding nodded, took the data, and began to read it.

He has been away from the Institute of Physics for a few days and has been living in the Institute of High Energy Physics these days. He sleeps well, eats well, and enjoys his meals.

No need to stay next to that stress monster Xiao Yi.

Well... although Xiao Yi never says anything, he has an aura of pressure.

It’s still more comfortable here!
As for their topic, it is mainly related to QCD phase transition.

QCD refers to quantum chromodynamics, a theory that can describe strong interactions. It mainly studies the behavior of quarks and gluons at the subatomic scale. In high-energy physics, studying QCD phase transitions is an important part of understanding the early state of the universe and strong interactions.

The goal of this project is to conduct in-depth research on the properties of quark-gluon plasma and its phase transition process.

Quark-gluon plasma is a form of matter in an extreme state, in which quarks and gluons are no longer bound in hadrons such as protons and neutrons, but exist freely. Such extreme conditions can only be formed in nature under the conditions in the early days of the Big Bang.

In the non-natural world, it can only be achieved through extremely high-energy heavy ion collision experiments.

Of course, since it is a phenomenon that can only be produced by the Big Bang, studying this issue will help scientists understand the state within a few microseconds after the Big Bang, and thus explore the material state and evolution process of the early universe.

In addition, it can also help guide the verification and improvement of QCD theory, and provide analogies for phase transitions in other physical systems, such as the mechanism of superconductivity.

"Hmm... I need to use the NS equations to simulate fluid dynamics."

After taking a quick look at the data, Guo Ding said, "Then we may have to simulate the models of lattice QCD, color charge, and screening effects, which will take some time."

"That's fine, as long as it works."

Academician Tang said with a smile.

However, he did not leave immediately, but continued to ask curiously: "By the way, when you were at Academician Pang's place some time ago, were you doing research with Xiao Yi?"

"Yes." Guo Ding nodded.

Academician Tang sighed, "I heard that the International Congress of Mathematicians announced their invitation list in the past two days. It seems that Xiao Yi was invited to give a one-hour plenary report?"

“Yes.” When talking about this, Guo Ding’s expression fell: “He received the letter from the International Mathematical Union in front of me.”

"Oh?" Academician Tang became interested: "Tell me more."

Guo Ding shook his head helplessly, and then told Academician Tang what happened that day.

Tang Yifang laughed, pointed at Guo Ding and scolded him: "Why don't you work harder and now you want to drag Xiao Yi into this? If people find out, you'll be scolded."

Guo Ding: "I don't have that. Please don't wrongly accuse me."

"I'm wrongly accusing you. I don't know how many times I've told you this. Otherwise, you would have been close to being named an outstanding young scholar, right?"

Tang Yifang shook his head and said, "Forget it, I am too lazy to tell you so much."

"But then again, according to what you said just now, Xiao Yi achieved results on the first day he arrived at Academician Pang's place. What do you think if we call him over to our place?"

"Ah?" Guo Ding immediately asked, "You want to ask him to come again?"

"Why? No?" Tang Yifang glanced at him and said, "It's a good opportunity to have someone come over to motivate you. You're already in your thirties and almost forty. If Xiao Yi was your age, he would have probably won two outstanding young scientists awards."

The corners of Guo Ding's mouth twitched suddenly. Is this how the accounts are calculated?
He muttered, "At your age, you would have won three Outstanding Young Scholars awards..."

"What did you say?" Tang Yifang glared.

"No, no, no." Guo Ding said quickly: "I think you are right."

Tang Yifang snorted and said, "I don't want to talk to you. Anyway, I have handed the task to you."

"First, analyze this data. Second, find a way to get Xiao Yi over here. Do you understand?"

"Understood. I will complete the task!"

Guo Ding stood at attention and quickly made the promise.

Tang Yifang pointed at him and then left.

……

The next day, Institute of Physics, National Center for Condensed Matter Research.

In front of Xiao Yi was a pile of experimental data and images related to the experiment for him to study.

These data and images reflect the various conditions inside the material during the transition from superconducting phase to insulating parent phase of FeSe/SrTiO3.

Analyzing these data can help study the superconducting mechanism, especially for high-temperature superconductors.

Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The change in the iron vacancy obviously has a huge impact on the electronic state inside the material."

"Hmm...if we simply use the density of states method to calculate, we can also find this kind of problem."

"The computational simulation results in the past few days also show that iron vacancies can cause local electron density fluctuations, which in turn change the interaction between electrons and the energy band structure, leading to the transition from the superconducting state to the insulating state."

"In particular, according to spectroscopy studies, there was no obvious Fermi level shift due to hole doping during the phase transition, but a significant spectral weight shift occurred, which means that there is a strong electron correlation effect in the FeSe superconducting transition."

"Strong electron correlation effect...Strong electron correlation effect..."

After thinking about this, Xiao Yi took out paper and pen and began to substitute these data into the corresponding physical formulas for calculation.

However, since these experimental data contain errors such as noise, they will affect the accuracy of the calculation results, so they also need to be processed.

Just like that, after some calculations, Xiao Yi suddenly narrowed his eyes.

"Hmm? This error is a bit strange, isn't it?"

It is normal to have errors, but the problem is that there is something wrong with the errors in these calculation results.

It cannot be said that they are too big or too small, but rather it should be said that these errors seem to conform to some rules.

Well……

This comes from his intuition. Otherwise, if he put these data in front of the other 99% of people, they would probably just think it was an error.

Instead of drawing a conclusion immediately, he tried to bring in some other possibly related physical formulas to process the problem, but it was completely useless.

"It can't be that you have discovered something new."

Xiao Yi shook his head and laughed.

But just as he thought this, his eyebrows raised and then turned serious.

Gotta Lock In.
Although intuition has some metaphysical elements in it, he is still somewhat confident in his own intuition.

So, maybe I am right?

"Xiao Yi, so you are here."

Just at this moment, a voice came from behind him.

Xiao Yi turned around and was startled: "Professor Guo? Why are you back? Did Academician Pang look for you?"

"Ah, that's not the case." Guo Ding scratched his head and smiled, "Actually, I came here specifically to ask you for a favor."

Xiao Yi: "Hmm? What's the matter? Professor Guo, please tell me."

"Hey, it's Director Tang from the Institute of High Energy Physics. After hearing about your performance in our research group, he wanted me to invite you to help out there. We just happened to have a project and we need a mathematician like you to help with the analysis."

"Our Director Tang really praised you."

Xiao Yi was stunned.

Another topic?
Well, this is indeed quite normal in the academic world. Scholars are always moving around between different research groups, and this is especially true for outstanding scholars.

Well...he can be considered an excellent scholar to some extent.

He asked, “What’s the topic about?”

"Hmm..." Guo Ding said, "Studying quark-gluon plasma and its phase transition process."

"Generally speaking, we call this thing QGP. In nature, it basically only exists in the first few microseconds of the Big Bang. So studying it can also help us understand the early conditions of the Big Bang. After that, it can help us understand the strong interaction force. Hmm... it can also help us study some phase transition phenomena. Oh! By the way, aren't we studying superconducting phase transitions now? Maybe there are some analogies between the two."

Can it help superconductivity research?

Hearing Guo Ding talking about this, Xiao Yi turned around and took a look at his own data. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Wait a minute, take a look at these experimental data first, and then these images. Do you feel anything about the errors in my calculation process?"

"What are these?" Guo Ding walked forward in confusion and took a good look at them.

After reading it, he was even more confused. "What's wrong with these data? It's just an error. Isn't it normal for experimental data to have errors?"

Xiao Yi tried to explain: "Don't you think..."

Halfway through his words, he shook his head and gave up. "Forget it, okay, I agree to go with you, but I have two conditions."

"You say." Guo Ding nodded naturally.

"First, you have to help me explain to Academician Pang."

"Of course there is no problem with that." Guo Ding made an OK gesture. This was indeed his responsibility.

"Secondly, please help me find the information of the experimental equipment for these data, including their specific models and specific performance parameters."

Xiao Yi said.

Guo Ding was confused again: "What do you want these things for?"

"Well...how should I explain it to you?" Xiao Yi thought about it.

He wanted to compare the experimental errors through the experimental parameters of these instruments and try to discover something from them.

Seeing Xiao Yi's expression, Guo Ding quickly stretched out his hand and said, "Forget it, forget it. Don't explain. I'll help you find it."

"That's good."

Xiao Yi smiled, "Then let's go now."
Guo Ding's eyes lit up: "OK!"

……

First, the two of them went to Academician Pang to explain the situation.

Although Academician Pang did not refuse, he also pointed fingers at Guo Ding and said, "You kid, you asked me to call Xiao Yi over, and I spent a lot of effort and had a big argument with Xi Lan from the Institute of Mathematics next door before I got Xiao Yi to come. But now you are helping the Institute of High Energy to call Xiao Yi over. That guy named Tang is really not kind..."

In the end, Guo Ding agreed to a lot of requests, such as if Pang Cheng needed help with his project in the future, Guo Ding would be available at any time.

Finally, Guo Ding brought Xiao Yi to the Institute of High Energy Physics.

When Academician Tang Yifang learned that Xiao Yi had arrived, he personally went to the door to greet Xiao Yi.

"Haha, I finally get to meet you in person. I'm very familiar with your name."

Tang Yifang smiled and shook hands with Xiao Yi, then he nodded to Guo Ding and said with a smile: "Xiao Guo, you did a good job this time, I'll give you credit."

Guo Ding smiled bitterly, thinking about the conditions he had agreed to with Academician Pang, he thought that it would be difficult for him to live a simple life from now on.

They didn't stay at the door for too long before entering the research institute.

"Professor Guo should have already told you what we are researching this time, right?"

Straight to the point, Tang Yifang asked.

Xiao Yi nodded: "Yes, I understand."

"That's fine!" Tang Yifang nodded, "Then Professor Guo, you will be responsible for explaining it to Xiao Yi from now on."

"Got it." Guo Ding said OK, since he had the same task at the Institute of Physics anyway.

"Yeah." Tang Yifang nodded, then looked at Xiao Yi again and said, "Of course, Xiao Yi, in addition to computer simulation, mathematics can play a lot of roles in our high-energy physics, or theoretical physics. At least it is much more than studying materials. Think about it, wasn't the theory of relativity derived by Einstein through mathematical deduction? Because his mathematics was not very good, he even had to ask Hilbert for help."

"For example, the Yang-Mills equation was also derived from mathematics, as well as the Higgs mechanism and so on..."

"Of course, there is another very important point in physics research, and that is physical intuition."

“Physical intuition is a deep understanding of physical phenomena and theories that goes beyond pure mathematical description and formula calculation. Just through formulas or mathematical data, physicists may discover something unknown to the physics community.”

"I'm not telling you this for any particular reason. I just hope that when you study our experimental data or analyze them, you can take a deeper look at these things."

Tang Yifang smiled and patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder: "After all, your intuition in mathematical research is already so strong, why not give it a try in physics as well?"

Xiao Yi thought about the intuition he had just discovered from the superconducting data, and finally nodded: "I'll try my best."

Tang Yifang laughed, then left without saying anything more.

Afterwards, Guo Ding took Xiao Yi into the Institute of High Energy Physics.

After some introduction, Xiao Yi had a general understanding of high energy.

In particular, the Shanghai Electron-Positron Collider (BEPC) located inside this institute is one of the eight largest particle accelerators in the world, which also established the Institute of High Energy Physics' status as a world-class high energy physics institute.

"Our experimental data this time mainly comes from the most recent collision at BEPC, which produced a large amount of data."

Finally they entered a computer room, and Guo Ding explained to Xiao Yi.

"The physics community has achieved electroweak unification, but the understanding of strong interaction is very weak, so the study of strong force is also the focus of many research institutes. As for gravity... this thing is not within the scope of discussion."

"The QGP that we are currently studying is actually quite successful. The only problem is that these are all high-energy conditions, in other words, extreme conditions, but the research on low-energy conditions is relatively weak."

"Especially the problems related to entanglement and the mass gap. I'm sure you're familiar with the mass gap problem, which is one of the Millennium Problems in mathematics."

Turn on a computer, and as the screen lights up, a bunch of data and images appear on it.

"Here, these are the experimental data. They are all on the computer. If you want to see them, you can see them anytime."

"Hmm... these should be the data of p-Pb collisions. QGP is usually produced by the collision of protons and heavy ions. You can take a look. But in addition to these, there are also pp collisions..."

Looking at these data, Xiao Yi's mind began to automatically think and analyze them.

For example, how are these data generated and why are they generated?

Comparing these data with the standard model one by one, most of them can match, but there are still some small parts...

Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes, looked at some points that were particularly deviated from the distribution, and asked: "Why are these points so different from the other points?"

"These." Guo Ding said very normally: "There will always be some erratic data due to experimental errors. It may be noise, such as the Coulomb interaction between beams and residual gas in the equipment, which will bring all kinds of sudden noise. It's normal."

"Is that so?" Xiao Yi nodded to show his understanding.

Particle collisions require a vacuum state, but it is obviously impossible to create an absolute vacuum environment on Earth, and there will usually be some gas molecules.

If it is residual gas molecules, when they collide, they may indeed cause some very prominent noise.

Without giving it any more thought, he continued to look down, and at the same time took out a piece of scratch paper and a pen to calculate and analyze the data on the graphs.

Just like he did in the morning when he was studying the data of FeSe single-layer superconductors.

However, as time passed, a strange feeling arose in his heart again.

Why...some of the errors here always make him feel that there are similar situations to those data errors in the morning?

"has a problem."

He said.

"Huh? What's the problem?" Guo Ding, who was doing a fluid mechanics simulation next to him, asked in confusion when he heard Xiao Yi's words.

"Look at the data I calculated." Xiao Yi said, "If we calculate them together and take the error into account, the final result will be very strange. Take a look."

Guo Ding looked for a long time but still couldn't figure out anything. Suddenly, he had a sense of déjà vu. Finally, he quickly realized that this incident seemed to have happened in the morning.

He was at a loss for words and said, "You felt something was wrong this morning, and now you feel something is wrong again. It is correct that physics is wrong. After all, it is not as rigorous as mathematics."

"Is that so?" Xiao Yi murmured.

He thought for a moment, then pointed to a set of images on the computer and said, "Look at this set of images. These data should be some W bosons and Z bosons produced in the process, right?"

"And then there is this group... this group..."

"Both the W and Z boson production rates appear to be much higher than expected."

"In addition, the most important thing is that in the calculation, the mass of the W boson predicted by the standard model does not match the result at all. Unless we increase the mass of the W boson a little bit, um, about 0.1%, it will match, don't you think?"

Guo Ding: ???
What do I think?
Now I just feel like my head is going to explode.

Could it be that he is really a genius?

Ahem, math genius is assumed, but the question is, is Xiao Yi also a physics genius?

He could actually figure out these problems from these data?

After swallowing his saliva, Guo Ding finally said, "I...I'll call Academician Tang over for you."

You just keep torturing me.

I really just want to be a salted fish!
(End of this chapter)